GOP Growth And Opportunity Plan Looks To Be Mostly Squishy

Perhaps there will be more in it once it is released than media outlets are reporting, but, probably not. The entrenched GOP leadership doesn’t seem to have a clue

(Daily Caller) Why did Republicans fail to stop Barack Obama from winning another four years in the White House and what can they do to get back on the path to victory?

Those are the topics tackled inside the 100-page report being released by the Republican National Committee’s Growth and Opportunity Project on Monday.

“The GOP today is a tale of two parties,” the report states. “One of them, the gubernatorial wing, is growing and successful. The other, the federal wing, is increasingly marginalizing itself, and unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future.”

That’s because the State level Republicans have caught a clue and are sticking with Conservatism, and have been willing to go on the offensive along with standing for Conservative principles. At the federal level, we often nominate non-conservatives. Look, I liked Mitt Romney, he would have been the right guy at the right time for this dismal economy, but much of his past agenda was slightly liberal. He was more JFK than Reagan. His campaign was also too nice, refusing to get down in the mud.

One way to attract younger votes, the report states, is having Republican leaders spend more time going on “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” and MTV, and giving interviews to publications like People and Us Weekly.

Sadly, in today’s Inside Hollywood type politics, this is necessary, and seems the only way to reach the low information voters.

And citing how outside Democratic groups successfully dug up dirt on Republican candidates in 2012, the committee suggests that well-funded conservative groups improve their opposition research on Democrats in order “to define our opponents as early as possible in the process.”

In case the GOP missed it, the groups do. But the GOP mostly refuses to use the research. Nor their own. They want to play nice with the bullies on the left. Here’s where we start getting really squishy

“If Hispanic Americans hear that the GOP doesn’t want them in the United States, they won’t pay attention to our next sentence,” the report states. “It doesn’t matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy.”

Does that sound like they’re getting squishy on illegal immigration? Let’s flip to the Washington Post

To broaden its appeal, the party must reach out to minority voters and others, according to one recommendation in the report obtained by The Associated Press before its release: “We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our party’s appeal will continue to shrink,” it said.

And

The RNC will also push for a tone of “tolerance and respect” in the immigration debate….

That theme seems to be infused throughout the report and in many stories about it. In other words, the GOP just needs to become Democrats in everything but name. To give up conservative principles. To approve of legalizing people who are in the US illegally.

The report does offer some smarter ideas, like long term outreach to minorities and younger voters, a better ground game, better infrastructure and modern technology programs (seriously, how many bloggers, from big to small, were ever engaged by anyone in the GOP?)

In his Monday speech, Preibus will say that the perception of the GOP as the “party of the rich” continues to grow, and that focus groups described Republicans as “narrow minded,” “out of touch,” and “stuffy old men.”

“The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself,” the report says. “We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue.”

One cannot be persuasive when one doesn’t stridently defend one’s ideas. Too many of the GOP insiders fail to make their case strongly, often pushing their ideas softly with the idea that the Media and Democrats will attack them. Clue for the GOP: they’ll get attacked regardless by the 90% liberal media, so attack as well as forcefully defend your own ideas.